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Since announcing Tiny Tunnell Two is on the way, there have been some questions (and a few comments! Haha!) so I thought a little FAQ was due. I’ll try and keep it sass free, but.. y’all know me;)

When’s this babe due?

Mid May. A nice spring baby. Although, if it blesses us with an apperance before July, we will be thrilled. Here’s hoping it dosent take after Levi – in being woefully overdue at least!

So that make you, ah, how many weeks?

Around 13 right now. So we’ve seen this little bean twice already, and gosh it’s sure cute!

How am I feeling?

Guys, it is the first trimester, does anyone ever feeling anything less than sub par? There’s morning sickness (which is all day & most of the night again) along with the tiredness and cramps and all the rest. But I’m so thankful for a healthy growing babe, so none of it really matters in the long run hey.

I will answer this by saying Seth & I are FULLY aware of how babies are made.. We also like each other.. alot;) Ha ha. So yes, I guess so!

But seriously, we believe that babies are blessings, and God gives them too you when He does. So were pretty dang excited & thankful for this new one!

Followed by: So how far apart will they actually be..?

For those that also hate maths, the answer we are looking for is around 17 months, based on the due date, although that could change depending on when this babe ACTUALLY arrives.

Are we finding out the gender?

Yep. We are changing it up and finding out this time around. Don’t worry, we will be announcing. I am TERRIBLE at keeping secrets.

Any birth plans yet?

God willing, this little one will be born at home with our fantastic midwife. We don’t want a repeat of Levi’s birth story, so home it is! We live further away from a hospital now, and if this labour is anything like our first, we won’t make it. And i’ll be stuck in the back of a car in transition for the SECOND time.

Although we do have a minivan now, the thought still dosent thrill me. Strange, I know.

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We’re bringing back the blog with a fun little announcement, which is that TINY TUNNELL #2 is on the way!

Hurrah!

We are super excited for this little bean to be joining our crazy crew.

Of course Levi knows nothing, but every time we show him the ultrasound or talk about the baby he laughs, so I’m gonna say he’s excited too;)

The summer was a little crazy, more on that later, but this little bean has been making us have a slow fall, which which has been so good … one with a lot of morning sickness, but good not less:)

We’ve been to the pumpkin patch and having some cozy nights in, and also been in bed by 9pm most nights. That first trimester exhaustion is real.. plus when you add a teething 11 month old, its not wonder I hit my caffeine limit at 8am most days! Ha.

So follow along as we add another little tunnell to this growing tribe.

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So Levi is napping *although from the sounds of it thats not quite happening* and I thought i’d steal a few moments to explain WHERE THE HECK I’VE BEEN.

So, let’s take it back a few…. ah… months.. and start from there.

We had our adorable little boy. Hurrah.

My parents came over, which was swell.

Then Hot Hubs quit his job and started a new one, which all worked out well and he loves it – so yay for that too.

My parents left, seth settled into his new job and Levi grew.

Then we made an offer on a house. It got accepted.

So we put ours up for sale, and prepared have people through, pack up and move.

I won’t go into the whole story, cause it’s long, but the moving/selling/packing process was not without hick ups, as always.

Somewhere in there Levi cut his first two teeth and my lovely sister in law was preparing to get married. So we had showers and parties and all the things.

We sold, settled escrow, moved and started unpacking for two days before we had visitors stay, and then the wedding.

Three days later we packed up and flew out to Australia for three weeks.

The trip was awesome, as always. I couldn’t possibly write it all out so I’ll put up a few favorite photos. Levi did great on the plane for the most part, and it was so nice for all my family to met him!

We landed home, and began unpacking.. again. Ha.

And then a week after that we flew up to Northern California for my Sister- in- laws Sister-in-laws wedding. Say that ten times fast 😉

We landed home from that late last Sunday night, and Tuesday Levi came down with bad croup. So that week was spent relaxing, giving cuddles, doing laundry and slowly settling into this new place.

He’s doing better now, Praise the Lord, and we are FINALLY unpacked, settled and looking at plans for doing up the house. Haha. Never ends I guess.

We are hoping for a slower paced summer/fall.. Although I say that ALL.THE.TIME and it never happens.

So, There is a quick update/explanation. I’m really hoping to get back into writing on this little blog again. One, because I miss it, and two, because it’s nice to document these crazy days and thoughts.

I’ll post some pictures of our house later. It’s a fixer upper house and needs a little TLC, but we are excited to work on it over the next while. If you have an experience with that, or any tips, let me know!

Side note, on the way out to the car my lovely neighbor stopped us for a quick chat. Gotta love apartment living;)

Anyway so Kaydee’s in her car, Seth’s driving ours and I’m lying across the back seat, still groaning.

It was 4:45pm, on a friday afternoon.

And the hospital we were going to was downtown.

And I was pushing 8 CMs.

I just want to pause and have a brief minute of silence for all the mother who have had to transition in the back seat of a car. Especially a small Elantra like mine.

On my list of things I never want to do again, that one is for sure in the top ten. Maybe even 3.

Anyways, 5pm on friday. #NotIdeal.

We hit the freeway, get stuck in traffic straight away.

And then get a call from kaydee saying that she had called the hospital to tell them we were coming in and we were pretty far along, only to have them say they had no rooms avalible.

Fitting, around christmas time. Ha.

To be honest there was no way we were going to make it down there before this babe, so that really was a blessing in the long run. I don’t know, but I can imgaine having a baby on the side of the 15 is less than ideal. (Jason & Ruth, Did you wanna chime in about that;)

So, with a change of plans we headed to the local hospital and I continued transition in the back seat of a small hyundai while stuck in peak hour traffic.

I know, I know y’all are jealous. It’s fun;)

We pulled up to the hopsital, seth ran in, and a whole crew of people ran out. I crawled out of the back seat and in to a wheelchair, still yelling #OfCourse.

The next few minutes were a blur as the pushed me into emergency and into a room to “Asses” me. Though we all know everyone in that hospital new what was happening, not sure how much assessing was needed.

I got onto a bed and they started poking and talking and who know what cause all i kept saying, between yells, was SOMEONE give me SOMETHING for the PAIN. My back is going to BREAK. It was at this time that our sweet little guy flipped face down, which in the long run is awesome, but during the flipping mean agony. And I felt every single second. Add to that the only “Pain Relief” i’d had was a huff of peppermint oil, I wasnt super thrilled.

Then some male Dr in his 30s told me to just lie still, don’t move, stop yelling and answer the questions they were asking, which was some thing about my insurance and pain level.

If I was more with it I would have swung at him. Truth.

Seth just stared at him.

After apparently listing to my complaints about pain and getting annoyed that I wasnt “Lying still on my back being still” * UM HELLO SOMEONE’S HEAD IS TWISTING IN MY ACTUAL PELVIS* he yells, SOMEONE get this woman SOMETHING for pain.

They decide morphine is the drug of choice and are about to administer when a Labour nurse over hears and says that morphine actually cause babies to stop breathing.

NOT IDEAL.

So she kicks out the Dr, yells at everyone to stop and I get nothing. But I don’t even care at this point because A) Transition is done and B) I LIKE MY BABIES BREATHING THANKS.

She wheels me to Labour and Develiery.

Its around 6 pm. A full 5 hours after my first contractions.

Looking back Im glad I had nothing, (which is how I wanted it actually!) because once transition was done, I relaxed. Unlike the end of active labour, when contractions came one after the other with no break, post transition I started getting a break. Which was bliss.

Then the rest was pretty calm. I started pushing around 6;30, and he was here under an hour later.

I will say that during that hour I was pretty dang whooped. The Dr noticed I was having contractions but not pushing, to which I mumbled, I’m too tired, I’m just going to ignore them.

And I did. Ha.

Apparently that’s not recommended though.

I was reminded that the more I push the sooner it stops, so I got back to it 😉

He came out and the first thing that was said was look at his hair!!

And then, look how big his head is. (Both these he gets from his dad;)

He was alert from the start and took to feeding straight away. He was 8.3 pounds and around 22inches, which for someone who is 5.1ft and normaly 110, is pretty dang big.

We passed all our checks with flying colors, and I really felt amazing. We headed home the next day and our new life started.

Im not going to lie and say it was easy breezy but it was pretty incredible. Hard hard work, but amazing.

And as soon as i saw him I was all, who was 14 days late? What pain? What morning sickness?

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Never fear, I wont be getting super descriptive or anything. Levi is down for a nap, and despite my mother telling me I should nap too, I’m writing out the crazy birth of our little man.

And crazy is not and understatement.

Before I begin though, I would just like to say that when I was doing all of this, I was under the care of an awesome midwife who was checking on me and giving advice. So we weren’t in any danger or anything!

We begin. I was a week overdue, looking huge and pretty done being pregnant. My midwife assured me that I was progressing in the right way, and that it was surely soon.

I had ALL the labour signs, (literally every one of them, apart from my water breaking!) yet the days crawled by.

By the time 41.5 weeks rolled around, they started talking about a hospital induction. And I was less than thrilled.

Don’t get me wrong, if there was some problem or need, I for sure would. But I was doing great, despite the extra 50 (YES 50!) pounds I was dragging around.

So on thursday (Nov 30th) my lovely doula/midwife Kaydee called to check in and I told her we were on the clock, I was done, and this babe needed to come.

She said she knew a few ways, it wouldn’t be pleasant, but was pretty effective, and Lord Willing, would work.

And here is were we begin.

5 am Friday morning, I took my first milkshake made with milk, ice cream and…

Castor oil.

I was up, making this little beauty at the crack of dawn and chugging it down.

And then again at 6.

And the third time was meant to be 7, only we never got there.

Around 6;30 I started vomitting.

And not just like a small amount. I mean. Vomitting.

I texted my midwife and told her. So she said stop, get back in bed and sleep.

There were other things we could try, and we would, but sleep was needed.

After I took my nap, I ate something, showered and text her saying I was feeling good, a little more rested and…. was going to start it all again.

#Desperate.

She said that was fine, if i felt up to it, but to take less and drink it over a longer period of time and relax.

Watch TV, read a book take another nap but just chill.

So around 10;30 I started again.

I made my shake and sat down to watch come TV.

A little after 11:30 I made the next lot drank it, and went back to laying on the couch.

Up til this point I hadn’t felt much in the way of contractions/labour ect (but plenty in the way of stomach and bowels.. ahem).

Around 12:30 I was relaxing on the couch when all of a sudden my water broke. I’m gonna be real and say at first i thought id just wet myself. #Truth

Since I was 42 weeks and huge and ALWAYS PEEING I was pretty chill about it.. till I realized this aint what I think it is;)

So I hobbled into the bathroom and rung Seth and told him what happened and that he needed to head my way pretty quick. He was excited of course, I on the other hand was a little nervous. #WorkTimeForMama. And then it all happened.

My water broken, I was home alone and FINALLY gonna have this baby.

I had prepped a labour box full of food, water, heat pads, motivational verse cards, ect.

They told me I would likely have a “long hard labour”. He was posterior facing with his hand at a strange angle and my first baby.

Read Long, Literally back breaking labour

Boy were they wrong.

Around 1:15 pm I had a kinda contraction. And i was like, HURRAH. Progress.

And then after that they were.. Intense.

And close together. They felt more painful and closer together than I was expecting them to be, but then, first labour so #Newbie.

So I timed them, just to see.

FOUR MINUTES APART.

I sent a jumbled text to Seth saying something about please hurry, these hurt.

By the time seth got home around 1;30, i couldn’t talk or walk thru them. They were long and strong and coming like mad. He got home, and set to work helping me through them. He was pretty surprised that they were so intense and started asking me questions, which i tried to answer between grunts and groans.

Around 2;30 He called our doula and explained that labour was in full swing, and my contractions were about three minutes apart and had been for a while.

She said it would probably still be a while, but she could head our way whenever we wanted.

Again, because #Newbie we had no idea how long it would be, so we told her we’d call later when we really needed her.

We lasted half and hour. Ha.

She came round about 3;30pm. And when she arrived, she got straight to work beating my lower back because posterior baby + big baby = wicked back labour.

And when I say beat, I mean beat, Capital B. Counter pressure, the shower and my lovely Birth ball were the only things that kinda eased it. Don’t even try to walk or move or nothing.

She later told us that she was pretty dang surprised at how far along I was when she pulled up. Cause when she got there, she started timing and I was at 2 minutes. We were only 4 fours along from my water breaking, and around three from my first real contraction.

Apparently when this boy decided to do something, aint no one gonna stop him.

At this point I was pretty much groaning & yelling with each contraction, which now crazy long and made my back feel like it was about to snap. So we got into the bath.

And this is were I lost my ever loving mind and started saying things like “ Can we just stop for an hour so I can take a nap?” And “Is thing actually doing anything” And “This hurts. Like. Hurts. I don’t like it”

Around the time I started smacking my head against the shower wall, Kaydee calmly announced that maybe we should check how far along I was.

After a fair bit of manervouring, and a whole lot more yelling, we realized that I was over 7.

SEVEN.

Not really registering what she said, and apparently forgetting that I was only going to get to ten, and seven and ten are kinda close, I mumbled something about when do we go to the hopsital. To which she said. Ah, now.

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We were blessed with a beautiful baby boy on Dec 1st. For those of you who know me, you would know that I was around 2 weeks overdue and looking HUGE #NotTheFunnest.

This was a WEEK before he came, i only got bigger too! #NotABasketball

Finally he made an appearance, not without a little coaxing, but all was forgotten when we saw this sweet little face!

First photo taken about 10 minutes after he was born, and second one about 20 🙂

Levi Honour was born around 7;24 pm and weighing in at a decent 8.3lbs. He has his dad’s full and crazy hair and my little elf ears.

We are absolutely smitten.

Seth got to take two weeks off, which was bliss, and we have just spent the last 10 weeks getting to know this little guy. Although life has keep on too! Seth quit his job and He started a new one the next week. We had my lovely parents over for a while helping with house work and getting their cuddles in, and a few others things like leaking roofs and dryer problems. #Life

He has been an amazing baby, so far and it is all just going way way to quick.

Thank you all for all your thoughts, prayers and love. We feel beyond blessed.

*Cue the onslaught of photos;)*

He LOVVVESSS Baths 🙂

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So it’s November. This year has FLOWN, and at some point this month we will go from a family of two to one of three. Hurrah. Since this year is speeding by, I thought Id check in and see how I’m doing on the goals for this year. And remind myself what I set out to do. Haha.

So here they are, and here is how I’m doing;)

Write letters and cards; I have been doing this one recently and been loving it!
If you would like a little card in your letterbox, let me know! I need to get back at this, I have been slack of late.

Pray in the “Spare Minutes”; Which means when I’m washing dishes, driving, walking, showering ect. Using these minutes that I’m already doing things to start connecting with God. This is needs improvement too, although I think there is always room for improvement in this area. Can you pray too much??!!

Read more non fiction; I tend to go towards certain book genres, which is fine, but apart from the bible I don’t really read any non fiction.
So I want to try to change that, I have a Brene brown on my night stand waiting to be devoured. I have!! And Im proud of this!! While the brine brown still is unread, I have made an effort to read more non fiction and have been SUPER enjoying it. So any good recommendations, let me know!

De-Clutter the house; I have been smashing this out thanks to our house remodleing. *YES THEY ARE STILL GOING. DONT ASK*.I’ll post after pictures when they are finished, *unless we pass away before that happens which is looking INCREASINGLY likely*.However, We have thrown out a huge amout of stuff and about 50% of our clothes. It has been AMAZING. This has been happening too. Hurrah! AND THE HOUSE GOT FINISHED!

Workout regularly; If you wanted to come and watch someone pant, limp and die around a soccer field, come to Poway on thursday nights.
We have started to play indoor soccer and it has shown me JUST how unfit I am.. For the viewers at home That would be VERY. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Create Something; I don’t know what this one is going to look like, but I want to create something this year. It could be a career, eBook, house, some kind of arty thing (NOT LIKELY BUT I’LL ADD IT IN HOPE) or whatever. Comment and give me some suggestions if you have them!Imma claim the baby as my creative endeavor;)

Say YES to more good things; I have gotten out of the habit of saying yes to the little, spontaneous things, and I’m not loving it.
So it’s back to the Girl who said yes to 10pm beach swims,random summer road trips and lazy saturday drives JUST CAUSE. I’ve tried! Although truth be told I could have been trying harder.

Re Read childhood Favorites; I am thinking Anne of Green Gables, Little house and The royal diaries. What are some of your childhood favourites? No. Sadly. I still have 2 months though:)

Learn a new skill; I’m thinking SEWING, which would have made my lovely Grandma proud, but will come as a surprise and concern to those who have seen/heard of my sewing skills up to this point.
I did not gain the sewing skills in the family. Infact there is a 90% chance of bodily harm when I get behind a machine. I will update you on this, when I’m in hospital with two casts and missing an eye. GUYS I GOT A SEWING MACHINE. It’s a mini one, but its pretty cute, and I’m just starting out. So excited to actually be doing this!

Get a dog; this was NOT on there, but since we got one, let’s add it so I can cross something off! HURRAH! He’s pretty dang cute, and has fast become a favorite with all.

It’s fun to look back at what I wanted out of this year and see how I’m doing. While it hasn’t gone to plan (When does it ever!) surprisingly I done a lot of them! Im going to try and finish the year strong and get back on track. Maybe not with the exercise one though;)

It’s funny that my theme was trust, cause God sure has given me PLENTY of opportunity to practice this. Like, more than feels comfortable. I guess thats the point though huh:)

So, How are you guys doing? Any one kept track!? Haha. Any new ideas for 2018??